Criminal Justice Colleges in Iowa

Iowa has three state universities, around twenty community colleges, and forty or so private and specialized colleges. Not quite 50 percent of Iowa's 3 million residents live in rural areas, which makes sense given that 86 percent of the state's acreage, is farmland. If there aren't enough criminal justice schools in Iowa near where you are to choose from, don't forget that online criminal justice colleges in Iowa also provide additional options. Regardless of where you study, you can enjoy Iowa's four seasons with very cold winters and very hot summers; the records are a -47 degree Fahrenheit low and a 118 degrees Fahrenheit high. With your bachelor's degree from one of the Iowa criminal justice schools, you can join the 21 percent of state residents over the age of 25 who have earned their four-year degree.

Jobs for Graduates of Iowa Criminal Justice Colleges

Law enforcement jobs in Iowa include corrections at the local and state levels; there are no federal correctional facilities in this state. There are a number of different police jobs in Iowa. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 21,310 individuals employed in protective service occupations in Iowa in 2009. The careers that employed the most individuals included:

Security guards ($23,990)

Police and sheriff's patrol officers ($46,020)

Correctional officers and jailers ($42,090)

Fire fighters ($36,230)

People with law enforcement jobs in Iowa, as per BLS, earned a mean annual salary of $36,680 in 2009. These earnings are about $5,000 less than the national mean wage in the field. The 21,310 law enforcement jobs in Iowa made up less than one percent of the over 3 million individuals employed in protective service jobs in the United States in 2009. Iowa's violent crime rate is 35th in the nation, according to FBI statistics. The national average for violent crimes is 429 per 100,000 people; Iowa's rate is much lower at 279 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. Thirty-one percent of violent crimes were committed in rural areas, the majority of which were aggravated assault. Overall, according to the National Institute of Corrections, Iowa's crime rate was about 26 percent lower than the national average, and about 90 percent of the crimes committed in the state were property crimes.